Keeping in mind all stakeholders$/$stakeholder groups, describe the communication issues for this case. With reference to the $5$ basic strategies of communication, the concepts of organizational silence, and the perceptions of fairness and justice, how should the communication issues that you identified be address?In your answer: Assess the quality of communications and advise Maniterrific how to manage the closure of the Selkirk refrigeration plant.

Maniterrific is a Manitoban company producing a wide range of home furnace, plumbing, and electrical appliances. Most of its $1,500$ employees are in the Interlake region and the company has been focused on making a good return on investments and growing shareholder value and has pursued this goal by giving priority to product innovation, investment in new technology and developing the capability of its staff.

Maniterrific has managed to maintain the competitive position of its Canadian manufacturing facilities in the face of growing competition from companies manufacturing in low$-$cost countries. However, $3$ years ago, the board recognized that this competitive position could not be sustained and that eventually much of its manufacturing capacity would have to be moved to cheaper locations.

Maniterrific already has manufacturing facilities in Bangladesh and Romania, but these were build to product a new range of products and did not involve the relocation of work from existing plants in Manitoba. Over the next five years, the company plans to close three plants in Manitoba with a loss of $700$ jobs and expand production elsewhere in the world.

The first closure will involve a Serkirk, Manitoba plant that produces refrigeration electronics. A new facility has been acquired in Romania and within $8$ months it will be ready to commence production of a limited range of high$-$volume products that have few parts and are relatively easy to assemble. As the capability of Romanian workforce is developed, the full range of products manufactured at the Selkirk plant will be relocated but it will be two years before all production, including the more complex, high$-$value products, can be moved. Consequently, some staff will be laid off in nine months, others will need to be retained for up to two years.

$62\%$ of output of the Selkirk plant is sold within Manitoba but the company estimates that the reduction in production costs associated with the move to Romania will more than outweigh the cost of transporting the refrigeration equipment back to Manitoba. One concern is how customers will react to the company moving jobs abroad.

Employees were shocked by the news that their plant is to be closed and are planning to do everything they can to resist the closure. Employees elsewhere in the company are aware that more plants are likely to be closed.